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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Shelf fe;73 ' 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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lli:\i;v VVOODFIN GRADY. 



A FRUITFUL LIFE. 



Tie Career, Character and Services 



OF 



HENRY WOODFIX GRADY. 



An Addukss Before the Albany Ciiai tai oj a, Albany, 






Georgia, March 30th, 1890. 



■BY 



JUN 301890 
j 

■^SHINGTO^V^ 



F. H. RICHARDSON 



I'i 1:1 .isiieii hy Ordkk of the Association 






6 



ALBANY, CiA. : 
NEWS AM) ADVERTISER BOOK AND JOB PRINT. 
1890. 



o 



HENRY WOODFIN GRADY. 

yLYMONG tlie events which have transpired in the in- 
c ^ *- terval since this institution was estahli shed is one 
of large import and peculiar pathos, to which the present 

occasion especially directs Our attention. 

We have no standards to measure the worth of a 
life which sheds wide and beneficent influences, n >r can 
we count the loss sustained when such a life ce ises to 
be — no, not that — but passes beyond the range of our 
vision. 

From participation in our affairs we have lost an 
active force; in the forefront of our march has fallen a 
heroic lender; from our companionship and love has 
been called a genial, Christian gentleman. 

His public services merit this recognition. When 
the thoughts of this people have turned so often to the 
loss which the commonwealth sustained in the death of 
Henry Woodfin Grady, it is fitting that they should 
gather in this multitude to consider his life and to bear 
this combined testimony that it was not in vain. 

I can hope to give little aid to the suggestion- which 
at this time rise spontaneously in the minds of us all. 



vi HENRY WOODFIN GRADY. 

There is little concerning the characteristics, the labors, 
the career of this man which is not already familiar to 
a wide-extended public. His was a luminous way 
through this world, and the lustre of his personality has 
not grown dim in the memory of the many who observed 
and admired it. 

But as his presence was so gracious, as his words were 
so full of the music of cheer, as his mind was so prolific 
of good designs, and his heart so big with benevolent 
conceptions, we may not only honor his memory, hut we 
may help ourselves to better efforts by considering what 
he was and what he did. Unlike many men in this land 
of opportunity who have risen to great distinction, he 
found in his childhood and youth an environment tavor- 
able to the development of his rare native powers. It 
was not his fate "to grapple with an evil star." He es- 
caped on the one hand the hardening, narrowing tenden- 
cies of poverty ; and on the other the still more perilous 
indulgences of wealth. His young life opened and grew 
to maturity under conditions which for the nurture of his 
mental and moral constitution could hardly have been 
better. His eyes opened in an intelligent, refined, God- 
fearing, Christian home. His father was a sturdy, earn- 
est man, who had made the way for his son smooth by 
bis own devoted toil, hut he inculcated in the young 
mind that spirit of self-reliance, and that ambition for self- 
wrought independence which are better than hereditary 
riches. He was inestimably blessed in that influence 
which more than a father, more than any other power 
on earth, moulds the young life and fixes its ideals. He 
had a Christian mother, one whose deepest anxiety and 
fondest hope were not that her son should he great, or 



HENRY UOohFLX <;h'AI>Y. 



VII 



famous, or rich, but that he should be good and pure 
and true. From his youth lie was nurtured in the sweet 
atmosphere of a Christian home. There was ever before 
his eyes the example of a strong, manly father, and into 
his very life entered the wondrous influence of a noble 
mother. If there is aught that is good and true in a 
child it will blossom out in such a home. 

Nature gave him a rich mental endowment, a poetic 
fancy, a quick perception, a rare degree of intellectual 
vigor and a buoyant, sunny, affectionate disposition. 
The development of his powers was rapid, and before the 
happy years of his childhood had vanished those who 
looked upon him with cold judgment, as well as those 
who regarded him with partial affection, foresaw that 
large possibilities would be within the *rrasp of his ma- 
tured powers. 

At his first school, and subsequently both at the Uni- 
versity of Georgia and the University of Virginia, he was 
distinguished among his fellows, not for scholarship, but 
for more unmistakable evidences ol intellectual strength: 
for striking originality ol' thought and charming facility 
of expression, for his easy and apparently unconscious 
leadership of the opinions of others, for his sparkling 
wit, for his never clouded cheerfulness, and forthatcom- 
bination of robust manfulness with womanly tenderness 
which gave to his character its most exquisite grace. 

The Whigs of England looked forward eagerly to the 
time when young Macaulay should finish his University 
course, receive his degree and take on the armor of polit- 
ical warfare, for he had been marked as one destined to 
play a considerable part in public lite. 

There was no such clearly defined career anticipated 



viii HENRY WOODFIN GRADY. 

for Henry Grady, but all who knew him while he was 
coming to manhood felt sure that in some sphere of life 
his genius would shine. This assurance w;is held in 
firmer faith because he had kept himself singularly safe 
from those dangers which beset men of his temperament 
in hot and lusty youth, and which when risked even in 
slight degrees throw some shadow of uncertainty across 
the face of the fairest future. Though the heartiest of 
youths and the most jovial of companions, he had never 
been seduced into those indulgences which, though meant 
only as the diversion of the hour, are too often the be- 
ginning of a live-long slavery to appetite. That poison 
so insidious, so subtle, so fascinating and so fatal to ner- 
vous, sympathetic natures like his did not seduce him in 
youth, and in manhood he despised it. 

And so, when precocity and ambition hadbroughthim 
to the threshold of manhood's duties, before he had at- 
tained its statutory years, the omens of his success were 
many and blight. Whither would he turn'.' His father 
had fallen in heroic battle while he was a child, and his 
mother's confidence in him was so strong that she did 
not attempt to sway his choice of a life-work. He did 
not long deliberate, nor did he attempt any studied analy- 
sis of his capacity or his predilections. It seems that 
naturally and as a matter of course he took up the pro- 
fession for which he was pre-eminently qualified. He 
was a born journalist. In the earliest of his writings for 
the press there are no marks of the novice. The lines 
How smoothly, the fancies are unstrained, the style is 
clear, vigorous and succinct. The art of conveying ideas 
through the medium of the newspaper in attractive ami 
effective fashion came to him as if bv intuition, and 



HENRY WOODFIN a HAD)'. ix 

though it grew stronger and richer with opportunity and 
experience, it had in his first efforts a fluency and grace 
which ahle and learned men in his profession have some- 
times labored in vain to acquire. He loved and honored 
that profession. He appreciated the immense power and 
the great responsibilities of the press. He realized that 
in this land it appeals to a larger constituency than the 
pulpit, the school, or the forum, yea. larger than all these 
combined, lie believed that it is not only powerful as 
a disseminator of information, as a propagator and de- 
stroyer of political creeds, as a bulletin of the world's 
daily history, hut that it had a direct concern with the 
affairs and conduct of men. 

lie saw in the newspaper an agency for the support of 
law and order, for the suppression of crime by detecting 
and assailing its sources, for the elevation of society, for 
the suggestion and encouragement of public charities, for 
the development of both the moral and material wealth 
of the community. Hut the perception of the moral pos- 
sibilities of journalism he held in perfect consistency 
with a keen appreciation of its purely business functions- 
No man knew better than he how to net the n ws and 
how to dress it in the most attractive attire, few men 
could equal him in the light, airy comment on li><' gossip 
of the hour, or in sharp, precise presentation of t he lead- 
ing issues of the day. hi the discussion of political ques- 
tions he had a remarkable faculty of reaching the popu- 
lar mind by apt illustration, by stripping the issue of all 
superfluous embodiment, by exposing the falsehood or 
absurdity of his opponent's position )>y some sharp thrust 
at its point of especial weakness. 

lie was a prince of paragraphers. His besl I'ditorial 



x HENRY WOODFIN GRADY. 

work was not in labored leaders. Those he seldom 
wrote, and when for some reason he overcame his aver- 
sion to the composition of lengthy editorial arguments 
he would usually supplement his main article by one or 
two brief expressions which in a few pungent words con- 
densed columns of wit and argument. 

As a correspondent he has had few peers even among 
the most gifted men who have told in charming strain 
through the columns of the press their stories of events, 
travel and legend. His descriptive powers were excep- 
tionally tine. There is something in his news] taper let- 
ters that suggests the sketches of Dickens, not indeed by 
any smack of imitation, but by reason of the same graphic 
portrayal of men and scenes, the power of giving by 
one (plaint expression or one delicate stroke an effect 
more vivid than any long-drawn description could have 
produced. The distinguishing characteristics of persons 
or the striking features of scenery he perceived instantly 
with the infallible eye of the artist, and to the portrayal 
of these he subordinated those unimportant surround- 
ings upon which a less masterful hand would have wasted 
infinite pains. 

Though work in his professional pursuits was exhilar- 
ating to him. and he was capable of an almost incredible 
amount of it, there was one species of journalistic effort 
which he did not like, which, in fact, he verily despised. 
It was personal controversy. Not that he feared his ad- 
versary, for. when aroused, he could fling the button from 
his polished rapier, present as keen a point and plant it 
with as nimble and as true a stroke as the best of his as- 
sailants. In any sort of contest of wit. satire, or invec- 
tive he needed to ask no odds. But he hated quarrels. 






HENRY WOODFIN GRADY, xi 

1 ilo not believe that in the whole of his journalistic 
career he ever provoked one, and I know that many a 
time he passed by in good natured indifference, or in 

silent contempt, allusions to himself which would have 
tired to angry response a less noble nature. He kept his 
professional utterances untinted by any color of his per- 
sonal prejudices, save when he expressed, it may he, his 
too partial view of some one whom he considered worthy 
of his confidence and support. When his heart swayed 
his judgment it was invariably in the direction of benevo- 
lence. 

[n the ripe years of his journalistic career there were 
two grand objects to which he devoted his pen with pas- 
sionate zeal, and for which he pleaded with effective 
power. These were the development of Georgia's re- 
sources and the restoration of complete fraternity between 
the people of all parts of the Union. 

There are practical proofs of the results of his labors 
tor one of these noble aims, and though what lie did to- 
ward the accomplishment of the other may not he so 
definitely ascertained, it is certain that he became illus- 
trious among those leaders of popular thought who have 
helped to extinguish the Hames of sectional animosity 
and to feed the generous tires of a broad patriotic love in 
this land. 

Hi< contribution to the material wealth of Georgia 
was enormous. He was no idle dreamer : hi' had a (puck 
and sure appreciation of practical advantages and op- 
portunities. He was no mere magician in the art of rhet- 
oric to charm the ear ami to fashion fascinating illusions. 
He had a clear understanding of the economic problems 
of his time, anil aided ablv in their solution. The hills 



xii HEMi Y WOODFIK GRA J) ) 

of Georgia were for him crowned with the glory of legend, 
blessed with associations and sacred as the silent wit- 
nesses of the struggles, the sorrows and the triumphs of 
his people; but be knew also that deep in their hearts 
lav treasures which were destined to increase the power 
and the splendor of this goodly land. Sterile fields and 
dilapidated estates were to him sad reminders of misfor- 
tune and change, hut in them he saw also the dishonored 
materials out of which science, thrift and improved meth- 
ods of agriculture might create marvels of beauty and 
garner abundant wealth. The homely questions of every 
day life enchanted him more than the figments of ro- 
mance. He watched the industrial progress ot the State 
with as keen an eve as has ever been fixed upon it. He 
helped the people to exchange ideas, to compare meth- 
ods, to consult with each other as to the best and most 
profitable direction for their energies. When some earn- 
est, enterprising citizen, hidden away in his own quiet 
corner, had hit upon a new and better plan for tillage, 
for saving or enriching the soil, for increasing its yield, 
or had found some new crop which rewarded labor well, 
hi was quick to discover such a one and to hold him up 
for bono - and imitation. 

The diversification of crops was a favorite theme of 
his for years. Long ago he portrayed the possibilities of 
fruit cult ire, mdon raising and tru^k farming in colors 
so glowing that so-called practical in mi smiled at the en- 
thusiast, and in their intellectual Phara^aism thanked 
God that they were not addicted to the chasing of rain- 
bows. And yet he lived to see the rosiest of his predic- 
tions on this line more than realized, to see here, in the 
very heart of King Cotton's favorite realm, stablished a 



HENRY WOODFIN GRADY. xiii 

new and independent source of revenue to see extensive 
;m<l prosperous industries until recently unknown amid 
the monotonous sweep of the staple crop which have 
created new wealth, increased the value of land and 
added permanently to the productive power of the people. 
I do not think I even trench upon the borders of ex. 
travagance when I say that no man of one generation has 
heralded the virtues and the charms of Georgia to the 
outside world as did Henry Grady. Almost every day, 
at Ins editorial desk, lie found some new word to speak 
in praise of the old mother. lie was continually expa- 
tiating upon the great opportunities she offered, not only 
to her <»wn children, hut to all who would come with 
strong arms and honest hearts to Hud homes in her pleas- 
ant places. ^ henever he went among men he was proud 
to say he was a Georgian, and eager to tell why any man 
should rejoice to wear that civic distinction. He did 
more, perhaps, than any other citizen of this State to ad- 
vertise the mineral wealth of Georgia and the South, to 
encourage our own energy and capital to set to work at 
its development, and to invite enterprise from beyond 
our borders to share in the labor and rewards of the un- 
dertaking. The conversion of this raw material into the 
finished product of skilled labor on our own soil he con. 
sidered essential to the achievement of the highest inde- 
pendence. Legitimate manufactures he knew to he a 
source of power and wealth, and was forever trying to 
discover some nook or corner where the machinery of in- 
dustry mighl he set to work to advantage, or to prove 
how large capital might find adequate returns by coming 
to our own inexhaustible stores of iron or our own unfail. 
ing fields of cotton. He was convinced thai < reorgia was 



xiiii HENRY WOODFIX GRADY. 

Ihn best place in this world t<> live in, and he gave so 
ninny reasons lor thinking so that I have no doubt he 
led many others to make the experiment. Local pride, 
which is free from all taint of bigotry, is an admirable 
quality. Love of State, of county, of city, of town, exor- 
cised to the In 1 1 of its legitimate hounds, is a sign of the 
truest patriotism. Henry (Brady's local attachments 
were intense, but they never hindered the play of his gen- 
eral sympathies; they never insulated his affections. 
And so, while he was striving to do Georgia service, he 
sought to injure no sister Slate. In Ins intense zeal for 
his own city he never tried to pull another down. He 
was singularly free from envy in his personal and his 
representative capacity. Success and prosperity, wher- 
ever they bloomed and fruited, delighted him; misfor- 
tune and failure, wherever they tell and blighted, he re- 
gretted. 

With such a constitution, and with the accidental ad- 
vantage that he had hern too young to participate in the 
civil war, it was hut natural that he should endeavor to 
discourage sectional strife; and to that end he labored 
as a journalist with unwearied patience and unfailing 
hope. Yet th ;re was no readier or more eloquent cham- 
pion of this people and their traditions than he. His 
righteous wrath was quickly kindled by any rude allu- 
sion to the cherished memories of our past, lie was 
ready at all times to trample beneath his feet in scorn 
any interpretation of the acts of these Southern States, 
any theory of the conduct of their political or military 
leaders in their war with the States of the North which 
was inconsistent with the highest sense of duty and 
honor. But he was willing to • bncede as much as he 






HEXRY WOODFIN GRADY 



XV 



claimed, lie deprecated sectional bigotry in Georgia as 
much as he deprecated sectional bigotry in Maine. He 
pleaded for charity and forgiveness and brotherly love. 
He was as certain as lie was of anything in this world 
thai the union of these States was to continue as Ion-' as 
civil liberty should endure on this continent ; and he 
was profoundly convinced that the preservation of this 
government was part of the plan of a benevolent Provi- 
dence whose love encircles and embraces all sections of 
this country with equal tenderness. Believing this he 
turned his face toward the future and urged others to do 
so. To him the way for the material, intellectual and 
moral elevation of the whole country seemed to have 
grown clearer in the process of events, and he longed to 
see all hearts turned in common sympathy toward the 
great destiny which manifestly awaits this republic. 

Had Henry Grady confined himself strictly to jour- 
nalism, had he never addressed the public except through 
the columns of a newspaper, had he taken no more active 
part in public enterprises than to advocate them as he 
did with his pen. he still would have attained to emi- 
nence in his profession, and abundant results would have 
flowed from his efforts. Purely and solely as a journal- 
ist he won a fame and accomplished a work which would 
have been a rich reward for a life much longer than his. 

But he found another large held for the exercise of his 

versatile genius. He possessed the gift of eloquence of 

speech as Well as that of eloquence of the pen. It is a 

rare combination, and very seldom do we find these pow- 
ers so evenly mated as they were in Mr. Grady. It is 
questioned vet among those who knew him best 



lether he was greater as a writer or as an orator. 



of 



xvi HENRY WOODFIN GRADY. 

one thing I am sure. It is that without his enchanting 
eloquence, without his superb use of several happy op- 
portunities, he could never have won so swift or so wide 
a recognition as an exponent of Southern sentiment; lie 
could not have played upon the popular heart so effect- 
ually as he did. We hear uracil about the decline of ora- 
tory and the growing indifference of men to eloquent 
speech. The general substitution of other means of ad- 
dressing the public; the almost universal use of letters; 
the ubiquitous newspaper: and the business-like meth- 
ods of the time are conditions deemed unfavorable to the 
culture or the effect of oratory. There is a distrust of 
line speech and a contempt for me 'ely rhetorical expres- 
sion, which is a sign of the intelligence and judgment of 
the masses. The studied oratory of the schools is at a 
sad discount among us: we have ce i.sed to he stirred, or 
even amused, by it. But there is an eloquence of speech 
which thrills the hearts and captivates the minds of men 
now as readily as it did when Aaron was commissioned 
to the service of the Lord becaus s h ■ could sp 'ak well. 
It is idle to talk of the decay of that eloquence which 
touches the permanent and essential elements of human 
nature. No change of conditions can rob it of its power. 
No invention can make it obsolete. The generation which 
has heard John Bright and Gladstone; Wendell Phillips 
and Benjamin H. Hill; Henry Ward Beecher and George 
F. Pierce, need not be told that the orator no longer 
sways the minds of men. 

Henry Grady had the gift of eloquence in a very high 
degree. He could appeal to tin' imagination, he could 
persuade the judgment, he could tire the minds and touch 
the hearts of men with masterly skill. I remember well 



HENRY WOODFIN GRADY. xvii 

the evening on which he received the first invitation thai 
!,,,! eV er been extended to a Southern man to speak at 
the animal dinner of the New England Society. He had 
iu , t delivered an address of welcome to the National 
Prison Reform Congress, then met in Atlanta; an ad- 
dress so replete with noble sentiment and high thoughts 
that his praise was on every lip. After he returned to his 
house he' told me over the telephone oi lus New York in- 
vitation. 1 took tlic liberty of urging him to accept it, 
ai ul said that lus friends would expect him to make there 
the speech of his life. Six weeks later he met the occa- 
sion and conquered it. He delivered what was perhaps 
the most surprising speech that has been made m th e 
United Slates in a 'decade. Asa rule even the best things 
which are said on occasions like that are merely the en- 
tertainment of the hour. They are the frothy ebullitions 
of playful tanev. -A moment bright, then gone forever. 
But his New England dinner speech was of far other sort- 
It W as pervaded by an earnestness, it was clothed in a 
beauty and it was electric with a passionate intensity 
which went beyond the occasion and the locality, and ap- 
pealed to this whole country. On the day before he made 

that Speech he was little known to the people ot the 

North On the next .lav and henceforth his name was 
familiar to the masses in every part of the Union Com- 
ment on the speech would be superfluous. Its liberaliz- 
ing effects are known of all men: it was the white flag 
of sectional peace carried tar forward and firmly planted. 
From that moment he became a national figure. He 
ha d long needed only opportunity to he.-,, me so. lie 
had made dozens of speeches on minor occasons and be- 
fore those familiar with his capabilities, which would 



xviii HENRY WOODFIN GRADY. 

have established any man's reputation as an orator. I 
think the most eloquent words I ever heard him speak 
were delivered in a little room in an Atlanta hotel in 
1882, to an audience of less than one hundred, and com- 
posed mainly of college students. It was the annual con- 
vention of the college fraternity to which he belonged, 
and as its memories and associations rose up before him 
he became nil a hoy again, a thing not difficult for him 
to do, for to its last pulsation his heait was ever as that 
of a little child. 

When he became a recognized exponent of Southern 
opinion and famed as one who could speak with passing 
eloquence of the attitude, the aspirations and the prob- 
lems of his section, there were many demands on his 
time and attention. Invitations to deliver addresses on 
important occasions poured in upon him. lie was im- 
portuned to write for magazines and reviews. He was 
involved in a large private correspondence on public 
questions. Burdened as he was already with the daily 
cares of his professional station, and with his interest in 
various enterprises of business and benevolence, it is 
strange that his nervous temperament and his not robust 
physical structure did not break down under this addi- 
tional strain. 

Eighteen months ago, when a great political cluing 
and its possible consequences engaged the thoughts o 
all and amused the fears of not a few, his prominence and 
the character of the situation made it inevitable that his 
views should be given to the public. They were em- 
bodied in several memorable addresses. One he delivered 
to the Legislatures of Georgia and South Carolina gath- 
ered at Augusta ; one to a vast crowd at Dallas, Texas: 



HENRY WOODFIN GRADY. xix 

one here a year ago; and, a few months Inter, one at the 
University of Virginia. In all of these speeches he dis- 
cussed the peculiar situation in the South, and in even' 

one of them he set forth the dangers which would c e 

from any interference with the honest, patriotic and in- 
telligent people of this section in their efforts to solve the 
problems which lie before them. Left to their own wis- 
dom and their consciences he believed they would work 
these problems out so that their civilization might sur- 
vive and flourish, and so that justice to all men would 
become the universal practice as well as the statutory 
declaration. If he was not right in this view then history 
is a falsehood and experience a will-o'-the-wisp in- 
stead of a safe and steady lamp unto our feet. 

If the series of his public speaches was not climatic, 
the hist was certainly the greatest of them all. It treated 
more exhaustively and with more statesmanship the con. 
dition, trials and dangers of the South than any of the 
others. It was a more complete ami more logical de- 
fense of the South against unjust charges and unwar- 
ranted suspicions than he had ever made before. It was 
the strongest plea lie ever made to the North to lay aside 
prejudice and to avoid hasty judgments in reference to 
the peculiar condition of affairs in the South, and before 
ii made up its verdict to try to realize the view winch 
would he held of these things, if they were practical dif- 
ficulties near at hand, and not the affairs of others, or 
dangers seen afar. 

But we have yet to consider this man in those relations 
of life which showed forth his true character better than 
it can he seen in a contemplation of his professional or 
public career. Henry Grady, the citizen, was more ad- 



HENRY WooDFIX GRADY. 



mirable than Henry Grady, the editor ; Henry Grady, the 
man, was nobler than Henry Grady, the orator. 

If it be true that the best estimate of a man's worth 
can be found in the opinions of his neighbors, we mib* 
accord a high place to him, for the people of Atlanta, fol- 
lowed him as they followed no other. They claimed his 
fame as a part of the city's treasure. They had seen him 
originate and promote many movements which contrib" 
uted to the city's prosperity and renown. They knew 
that his voice, his pen and his purse were ever at their 
command for any good cause. The Cotton Exposition 
was largely his work, and it gave Atlanta her start as a 
center of varied ami valuable industries. The two Indus- 
trial Expositions held there since were in a still larger 
sense his designs. The Salt Springs Chautauqua was his 
idea. The local Young Men's Christian Association had 
languished for years in a dingy hired hall, and the most 
persistent efforts had failed to procure pledges of suffi- 
cient funds to guarantee the purchase 1 or erection of even 
an humble home. He took up the drooping cause, and 
within a week the multitude of practical responses which 
came to his appeals brought the $80,000 now represented 
by the splendid Young Men's Christian Association build- 
ing in Atlanta. 

There was another cause very dear to his heart. It 
was the cause of the destitute, broken and aged heroes of 
the Confederary. He felt that Georgia had a sacred ob- 
ligation to protect and care for them, and one burning 
editorial of his made the Confederate Veterans' Home an 
assured fact; made it possible that the cornerstone of 
that institution should he laid in enduring granite on the 
next Memorial Day. These are some of the many imm- 



ttEXRY WOODFIN <;i!M>V. 



xxi 



urnents to his zeal for good works. The public hospital 

which lie longed to sec established in Atlanta the i pic 

of that city arc now preparing to build to his memory. 

The record of his labors for public improvements and 
public charities may he written, but not the story of his 
many deeds of mcrcv, tenderness and grace. If all the 
rich of this land were to give with one-tenth his liberality 
there would he abundant bread for the starving, and 
(dean, warm clothing for all the squalid, ragged children 
of misery. Though he was sometimes imposed on, the 
knowledge of it did not harden his heart to the next sup- 
plicant for assistance. He gave as long as he had the 
means and saw any human creature in need. He wag 
eager to seize opportunities to befriend the helpless and 
forsaken. 

Years ago, for sonic reason, he visited a convict camp 
near Atlanta. There, among hardened criminals, among 
brutal men, he saw a frail young girl in fetters. The sight 
shocked him and kindled his indignation against the 
shameful penal system under winch such a degradation 
of a young girl for a misdemeanor was possible. The 
story, as he told it in the newspapei, touched the hearts 
of thousands ; but he did not stop at the pathetic recital 
of the outrage. He went to the Governor with a petition 
for the girl convict's pardon, to which he had procured 
many signatures. He pressed the case with all the earn- 
estness of his nature, and procured a warrant for her re- 
lease. Then he got a vehicle and made all haste to the 
convict camp, impatient of a moment's delay in the de- 
livery or the victim of a barbarous theory of penal servi- 
tude. He had already procured a position wherein the 
girl might earn an honest livelihood, and a few hours 



xxii HENRY WOOD FIX GRADY. 

later, as he brought her back to freedom and to hope, she 
herself could hardly have been happier than was he with 
Iris face all aglow in the joy of that humane (Iced. I do 
not know an anecdote more characteristic of him. 

He delighted to help his fellow-man.' He love human- 
ity. He sympathized with its sorrows, lie was charitable 
to its weaknesses, he had an abiding faith in its virtues- 
The loss of such a man ;it any time isdeeply felt. When 
it befalls in the reasonable and expected course of nature 
it is deplored, though we have cause to believe that the 
fruits of the lost lite have all been gathered in. But how 
untimely to our understanding was the taking off of 
Henry Grady! And as we realized that "Covetous death 
bereaved us all to aggrandize ope funeral," we could but 
wonder at the dispensation of Providence which had 
nailed this bright star — 

"To its track, 
On 1 lie half-climbed Zodiac." 

Wisely warned the Greek : "Call no one happy till his 
death," but surely we may bestow beatitudes upon this 
Life, cut off in the very prime of its power, in tin 1 very 
flower of its honor and fame, but already crowned. 

An illustrious genius, the kingliest that has enriched 
English poetry since Shakespeare, at the very meridian 
o!' his years, has told us how poor all his triumphs seemed- 
B} 7 ron, on the day when he completed his thirty-sixth 
year contemplating a life that had been embittered by its 
own passions, wrote these mournful words : 

"My days arc in the yellow leaf; 

The flowers and fruits of love are gone; 
The worm, the canker and the grief 

"Are mine alone !" 

How different were the feelings of Henrv Grady at 




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